One Hit Kill
One Hit Kill Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
Remove the three white Overload cards from the deck. Set them aside for a moment.
Shuffle the white cards, then deal each player 7 white cards. This will be their hand. Don't peek at other players' hands.
Place the top 3 white cards face-up. This is the Field.
Shuffle the Overload cards back into the deck and set it face down next to the Field. This is the Draw pile.
It should look basically like this. The spot marked "Discard" is where you'll put your discarded cards. (You probably knew that.)
Shuffle the black cards, then deal each player 2 black cards face-down. These are the weapons they want to build in order to win the game. You can pick up these cards or leave them on the table. Weapon cards don't count as part of your hand. Set aside the remaining Weapon cards in a pile.
Decide who goes first. You can do rock-paper-scissors or any other means. In subsequent games, the winner goes first.
You are ready to play!
Reminder: You can see all of this in a video if you prefer at onehitkillgame.com.
Playing the Game
The fundamental rule of One Hit Kill is Do Exactly One Thing. We'll repeat this a lot, because it's so important. When it's your turn you either:
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Draw a Card. Take the top card from the Draw pile, or one of the cards in the Field. Put the card in your hand. If you took a card from the Field, refill the empty spot with the top card from the Draw pile.
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OR Discard any number of cards from your hand. Put them face-down in the Discard pile. You can discard as many cards as you want on your turn. Why would you want to discard? Because holding on to more than 10 cards is risky. (See Overload.)
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OR Take a new Weapon. Don't like your two Weapon cards? Take another from the pile. There's no limit to how many weapon cards you can have.
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OR Play a Special card. Special cards do special things, such as letting you search for a specific component. See the Special sidebar on the right.
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OR Reveal your completed weapon. If you have all the necessary components to build one of your weapons, you've won the game! But remember: Because you Do Exactly One Thing, you'll end up completing the weapon the round before you reveal it.
After you've Done Exactly One Thing, play moves to the next player clockwise.
Super Important Rules
Components must be in a run! Components need to be the same class in sequential order. If you've played poker, think of it as a straight flush.
The sidebar illustrates this with four examples, each marked with a check or cross:
- "Same class. Sequential." (Example: 5, 6, 7 of one class.)
- "Must be sequential." (Example: 2, 6, 9 of one class.)
- "Components must be of same class." (Example: 8, 9, 10 in mixed classes.) (But see Transmute under Specials.)
- "Runs can't go past 10." (Example: 9, 10, 1 of one class.)
Components can't do two jobs. If you're using a component as part of a run, you can't also use it for another weapon requirement. For example, Basilisk requires two 8 (Eye) cards. One of those 8s can't also be part of a run. You will always need 7 cards to build a weapon.
When the Draw pile is empty... Shuffle the Discard pile, then place it face-down as the new Draw pile.
Specials
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Natural Selection: The player draws the top five cards off the Draw pile. The player may keep as many of the cards as desired. Unwanted cards go in the Discard pile.
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Regex: The player searches the Draw pile and chooses one card to put in her hand. She then shuffles the deck.
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Chaos: The player chooses whether to discard all the cards in the Field, or force another player to pick them up. The player then takes one card from the refilled Field.
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Transmute: Change the class of a component when it is used to make a Weapon. It is only played at the end.
Overload
Overload is one of the most dangerous cards in the game.
- It forces anyone with more than 10 white cards to discard down to 5 white cards.
- It sweeps all the cards out of the Field in to the Discard pile. Three new cards take their place.
Overload can be played from a player's hand, just like any Special card. It affects all players, including the player who used it. If Overload ends up in the Field, it is triggered automatically.
If for any reason a player has two Overload cards in his hand, they trigger immediately AND both Overloads must be discarded.
Changing the Game
One Hit Kill is designed to evolve with Expansions and Variants.
Expansion Packs
Expansion packs such as Death & Lore add new Components, Weapons and Specials to One Hit Kill. With an expansion pack, up to six players can play.
Every expansion pack requires the Core deck. Most Weapons use a mix of core classes and expansion classes.
To use an expansion pack, shuffle its white cards (Components and Specials) in with the Core white cards. Do the same with the Weapons. We don't recommend using more than one expansion pack at a time.
Every expansion pack comes with new Specials. For example, the Death & Lore expansion comes with History, which allows a player to search through the Discard pile, and Winnow, which forces each player to discard two cards.
You can find more information about available expansion packs at onehitkillgame.com.
Variant Rules
While the standard rules for One Hit Kill are the best way to begin, the game is designed to be hacked and customized. Small changes to the rules can have a big impact on the game, forcing players to switch up their strategies. These rule changes are called variants.
Variants follow a standard format, making it easy to see exactly what's changed. This is the most common variant:
Communal Weapons
- Decks: Core or Any Expansion
- Players: 2-3 (Core) or 2-6 (Expansion)
- Goal: Build one of the Weapons before your opponent(s) can.
- Complexity: Medium
At the start of the game, deal two Weapons face-up and place them near the Field. Each player is trying to build one or two of these Weapons. On their turn, players can choose to add a new Weapon to the group, with a maximum of 4 Weapons allowed.
You can find many variants online at onehitkillgame.com and in the One Hit Kill app.